MacMost: Archives

You can use a shell script inside an Automator Quick Action to add the date of a file to the beginning of the file's name. You can also make this work with photos using the date the photo was taken from the metadata in the file. As a Quick Action you can easily apply this name change to one or many files at once.

You can rename a group or folder full of files at the same time using the built-in batch rename tool in the macOS Finder. You can simple replace some text with other text in all of the selected files, add text to the names, or add numbers to each file. When using numbers, you can replace the names with some text and a number, or keep the current name and add a number before or after it.

You can use JavaScript in Automator to save the positions of each window in each app to a file. Then you can recall those positions later if you want to resume working with the same window locations. This script will save as many position settings as you like and then allow you to recall them easily. You can even set it up as a keyboard shortcut.

If you prefer to not use the Mac Photos app, or would like to store some of your photos in a different way, a viable alternative is to simply store them as files in folders. You can use subfolders, file names, comments and tags to manage and organize these pictures. You can use the four different Finder views to view the photos, and Quick Look and Preview for other views and editing. You can even use aliases to create albums.

You can create a fireball in Keynote and then export it as a transparent video. You can then record yourself with QuickTime Player and place the fireball in your hand. It can move with you and you can even throw it if you put the time in to create animation keyframes in iMovie.

When you are writing on your Mac, you don't want to have to take your fingers off the keyboard to move the cursor or select text. There are a variety of keyboard commands you can learn to make it easy to move the cursor by letter, word, line or paragraph, delete characters or words, and make selections.

Reader View is a special mode you can bring up in your web browser that gets rid of ads and other page elements and lets you focus on the text of an article. In Safari on your Mac you can bring it up with the click of a button or a keyboard shortcut. You can also set a website to always show Reader View when possible, though this can cause problems. Firefox also has a Reader View, but Chrome's version is difficult to get to and doesn't work as well. Safari on iOS and iPadOS also has Reader View.

When you scan in documents with your iPhone or other device you sometimes end up with files too large to store or send in an email. You can easily compress a PDF using the Preview app on your Mac. However, the default compression setting is too high for most uses. Learn how to customize the compression with your own quartz filter and then use it in Preview or turn it into a Quick Action using Automator for one-step PDF compression.

Dwarf Fortress is a complex strategy game where you control a group of dwarves as they build an underground fortress and mine the area. You can play it on your Mac but it is tricky to install and get working in macOS Catalina. Then you are going to want to add a custom tileset to make it look decent. I go through these setup steps, and then show you how to get starting with playing the game.

You can buy cheap NFC tags and use them to trigger Shortcuts and other actins on your iPhone. You can set up a Personal Automation that automatically runs when triggered by touching your iPhone to a tag. You can also write information to tags that can bring up web pages and request other actions from any iPhone or Android user with a recent device.

The latest update to macOS Catalina, version 10.15.2, brings back to beloved features of the old iTunes app. You can now view your songs library in the Music app using the Column Browser and control music playback on your Mac with the iPhone app iTunes Remote.

Apple released macOS 10.15.2 and iOS 13.3 with a large list of bug fixes. Included in this macOS release is the return of the Column Browser in the Music app, plus the ability to use iTunes Remote to control your Mac’s Music app from your iPhone.

When a new Windows user switches to Mac, they can be frustrated by the differences. Here are some of the most common questions and problems that new Mac users face and the solutions. There are some great tips here to get your transition moving forward quickly. Welcome to the world of Mac!

Apple’s new Mac Pro computer is now available for order at the Apple website. The companion Pro Display XDR is also available. Delivery estimates are given at one to two weeks.

Apple has two new features right now that are of note to those looking to buy new Apple products. From now until the end of the year they are offering 6% cash back on specific Apple products. This is double the usual 3% back you get when using and Apple Card plus Apple Pay to buy hardware directly from Apple.

Most people use albums to organize their photos in the Mac Photos app. However, it makes more sense to use Keywords instead of albums. You can create a Smart Album with any Keyword. But instead of Smart Albums, which can't be seen on iOS, you can simply search for a Keyword to view those photos just as if they were an album. You can also search for words in titles and descriptions, making them useful for organizing as well.

The new Mac Pro is the most powerful Mac ever, but it comes with a huge price tag. But if you are looking for a pro-level Mac, you have other choices. You can get the iMac Pro, which is cheaper and comes with its own 5K screen. You can also get an upgraded regular iMac or MacBook Pro. A budget option is to get an upgraded Mac mini with an external GPU.

You can use JavaScript in Automator to fill in a web page form. If you make this a Quick Action you can access it from the menu bar or as a keyboard shortcut. This can help speed up situations where you need to fill in the same form every day.

As someone who has been helping people with their Macs for a long time, I see lots of things people do with their Macs that if they stopped it would solve a lot of problems. Learn from my past experience and years of teaching to prevent current and future problems.

The handoff feature of macOS and iOS allows you to use a Universal Clipboard to copy text, images, files or just about anything between your devices. You can use this to copy and paste text and images between documents while working with two or more devices. You can also transfer entire files this way, which is actually easier than using AirDrop in many situations.